2015 April

Here at Rumble we’re overjoyed. We’ve just finished up the World Premiere of Indian Arm, by Hiro Kanagawa – and what a premiere it was! Critics and audiences raved about the show. In Vancouver Presents, David C. Jones wrote: “Indian Arm will sneak up on you and rip open your heart”, while Colin Thomas of the Georgia Straight said: “InIndian Arm, actress Jennifer Copping pretty much skins herself alive. Her performance is one of the most astonishing of the season.”

Richard Russ – Photo by Tim Matheson

We ask for feedback after every performance and our audiences are asking us to create more shows like Indian Arm. Plays with a uniquely Canadian perspective, that challenge people to think, while shaking them to their core. We’re going to make this happen and we’re writing today to ask for your help. Please join us in creating moving, intense, Canadian plays by making a donation to Rumble today.

Indian Arm, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf, is the first play to come out of a new program for Rumble where we commission Canadian playwrights to adapt classical plays for Vancouver audiences. We are beyond excited about our next commission, A Wilderness of Tigers, an adaptation of Shakespeare’sTitus Andronicus by Governor General award winning playwright Colleen Murphy.

We’re elated about collaborating with Colleen on this project and she’s equally enthusiastic about working with us. “Rumble Theatre is an exciting company…” Colleen says, “So I was thrilled with Artistic Director Stephen Drover invited me to radically adapt Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus.” With its exploration of the brutality of war and the inescapable nature of vengeance, Titus tells a story as old as humanity and as fresh as today’s evening news. Over the next two years, we will workshop and develop A Wilderness of Tigers, before giving it its World Premiere in spring of 2017.

With your support, we can make A Wildernessof Tigers beautiful, challenging and affecting. We can welcome more Vancouverites into our theatre, and show them their home as they’ve never seen it before. Please join Rumble and make a tax-deductible donation today.

If you would like to donate online, simply click HERE to make your tax-deductible gift by Visa, Mastercard or debit. If you prefer to donate by cheque, you can mail it to our office at 1422 William Street in Vancouver, or stop by in person and say hi. We’d love to see you.

Last week we received an email from an audience member who had just seen Indian Arm. He said, “Onwards with courage… the work of your theatre is needed and appreciated.” Please, donate to Rumble and help us continue this much needed work.

John has been in a stable relationship with his boyfriend for a number of years. But when he takes a break, he accidentally falls in love with a woman. As the pressure mounts, a dinner with all parties is arranged, and everyone wants to know: Who is John? What is he? And what will his decision be? Winner of the 2010 Lawrence Olivier Award, Cock brilliantly questions the dual nature of sexuality and the complexities of love in the modern world.

We are very excited to be bringing back our popular Speaker Series for Indian Arm. On Wednesday, April 15th, immediately following the 8pm show, we invite audience members to stay for a free talk about themes in the show. (If you’re seeing the show on a different night but still want to attend the talk, please come by the theatre around 9:45pm with your ticket receipt or Rumble button to be admitted.)

Our guest speaker will be theatre artist and novelist MichaelSpringate. Michael’s talk is entitled “Protocols, Liberalism and Contracts: Using Native Traditions to rethink Western Economic Relations”. Must the problems of land ownership be solved by contract? Is there a role for protocols? Are western economic relations actually based on negotiated contracts, or on hidden protocols? What role does classical liberalism play in popular conceptions today? Can the west reconsider its financial framework? These questions will be approached through the lens provided by Indian Arm by Hiro Kanagawa, (2015), as well as the play from which it borrows its dramatic structure: Litte Eyolf by Henrik Ibsen (1894).

Michael Springate is an Artistic Associate and dramaturg at Full Circle: First Nations Performance, as well as past Artistic Director of Playwrights Workshop Montreal, Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg and Factory Theatre in Toronto. His recent novel, The Beautiful West & The Beloved of God, is nominated for the 2015 BC Book Award for adult fiction.